It is well-known to divide interior space within an office environment or the like by employing a partition wall system constructed of interconnected panel sections. Systems of this type are commercially available from various sources including the assignee of the present application and have been described in promotional and related literature for products sold under the name Series 9000, Context, Montage and in various U.S. patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,760, U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,658 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,769, which materials are hereby incorporated by reference. Such known partition wall systems not only can provide for efficient space division and office worker privacy but also for flexibility in layout and arrangement, as well as desirable aesthetics.
It has become increasingly important to provide for electrical and data (including telephony and computer network) connectivity to equipment installed within the various spaces provided by the partition wall system (and used by office workers therein). Ordinarily, such equipment is connected and networked through various power and data cables and wires, which may result in the accumulation of a plurality of such cables and wires to be routed into, through and within the space. (For a description of workplace wiring and cabling, see for example, the Steelcase Cable Facts guidebook (S372 dated June 1993), which is incorporated by reference herein.) As a result of the proliferation of equipment to be connected it has become increasingly necessary to manage the accumulation of cables and wires more efficiently. Specifically, it has become desirable to provide that such cables and wires be "hidden" or maintained out of view by the partition wall system, and yet be readily accessible to the corresponding equipment.
As a result, partition wall systems, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,615, which is incorporated by reference herein, have been constructed with cable management capability. Typically, the cable management capability is in the manner of cable troughs or defined tracks at a particular horizontal level or at a particular vertical position on or adjacent to the interconnected panel sections (i.e. within or between the panel sections at particular horizontal positions). See exemplary U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,006, which is incorporated by reference herein. It is also known to provide as an attachment or extension to the panel section a horizontal "raceway" (i.e. a track or conduit at or near the floor) or "beltway" (i.e. a track or conduit at or near the worksurface level) or the like through which cables may pass continuously from panel section to panel section as comprise the partition wall system. (Like tracks or conduits are also used for vertical cable routing.) However, the use of such attachments (which must be mounted to the panel sections) tends to add to the complexity and cost of the partition wall system (and its constituent parts and assemblies) as well as to the time and cost of assembly of the partition wall system in the office environment. Moreover, such "raceway" or "beltway" arrangements do not flexibly provide for horizontal and vertical cable or wire lay-in insofar as the cable passages are essentially pre-defined in either a horizontal or vertical direction. Furthermore, special equipment (e.g. mounting hardware, etc.) is sometimes required in such existing systems to pass cables or wires along between adjoining panel sections of the partition wall system, which further can adversely affect cost and flexibility.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide for the construction of a panel section in a partition wall system that readily provides for flexible cable management. It would also be advantageous to provide for a panel section of a relatively simple construction that provides for relative ease of installation and of cable lay-in during assembly of the partition wall system. It would further be advantageous to provide for a panel section that is suitable for low-cost fabrication and can be used with a wide variety of covering skins and in a wide range of applications and installations of partition wall systems.